Exercise- A narrative picture essay

This project required me to set myself an assignment and photograph it.

As the weather was good I decided to try to capture the Rusper Annual run and street fare. This event takes place each year and the race is very competitive. I decided that I would get to the event early to work out where I wanted to take my images. The main event of the day is the race so I had to know where the race would be and , most importantly, where and when the race would finish.

I wanted to present the images in a similar way that they would appear in a newspaper. I also wanted to make up a poster that could be used for the following year.

I wanted images that would show the reader what the day was like and how everybody enjoyed it.

Road Closed For the Day

This image was the first image that I took on the day. It shows the reader that the road was closed for the event and that there are a large number of people already there. It also gives the reader the first view of the steam engine and the three guys who were looking after her.

The above image gives a general view of the day

Steam Engine

I thought that this would be a nice image to take. It shows the steam engine in all its glory. The quality of the workmanship that was involved in making her and in the continued maintenance to keep her looking good.

Detail image of the Crew

A detailed image of the crew members showing the dirty hands and overalls. It also shows the name Rusper of the engine which gives local interest.

Further image of engine

I chose to take this image as the red oil can really stands out against the black of the engine.The various metal parts also stand out. These give an impression of a solidly built piece of equipment.

The Crew of the engine

The crew standing in the road. I like the fact that there appears to be three generations of men. Are they related or from the same Family? Has the traction engine passed from father to son?

If creating a news report, a report for an internet site I would have added the below image taken from a crop of one of the above images. I have created two different images one in colour for a magazine / web page and the other in black and white as if it was to go in a newspaper.

Black and White

Colour

I think that both images send a strong message to the viewer. The dirt on the mans hands show that he is involved in hard manual word, which is required o keep the fire burning.

I kept the red steering wheel and road wheel in the image for contrast

The above images dealt with the steam engine aspect of the day.

General Street Scene

This image shows not only the group of people, but the Punch and Judy show. I also like the straw bales, these are a nice touch and look a lot better that a row of chairs would.

Further image of visitors

A wider view of the same image shows how many people were in the street. The image also introduces the couple in the wheel chairs. They also has a small dog with them.

Two local people Dog in the basket for interest

A close up image of the couple as mentioned above. Local people enjoying the day. The dog , I thought, added a nice touch to the image and is the sort of picture that people like to see.

Music from a local Group

The above set of images show what was happening in the street as the event took place.

Throwing the boot, boot in shot!!!

An image taken of a guy taking part in a boot throwing competition. One of the many games that visitors could take part in. I chose to take images at this games as it had the best chance of me getting some form of “action Shot”.

And now, for some, the main part of the day. The off-road cross-country race.

Some serious and some fun runners

This was a general shot of a group of runners. It shows the ages of the runners so viewers would know that people of all ages took part.

Nice shot for the Parish Website?

A shot taken to show viewers that although this is a serious event people were still able to enjoy the day.

The men's winner , crosses the finish line. Important Image

I made sure that I got to the finish line to capture the first man home. It was a shame that they did not have a tape for him to cross, this would have made the image a lot more interesting. If I didn’t tell you he had finished you would not know!

The Ladies winner. Crosses the finishing line, another important image

Again another important image, the first lady home, again the same problems with the lack of a finish line. The supporters in the background add context to the shot.

Both Winners The Sports Page Image of the Day?

This last Image would be the one that I would Put on the back page of the paper report. It took me a little time to get them together, but I liked the final result.

The image of the couple in the electric wheel chairs, with the dog, I would put on the page with the main report of the event. Added to this would be the ladies running and waving. They show people having a great time

I also played round with one of the images above to see what it would look like in a black and white format for a newspaper. I also cropped the image as I thought that a picture editor would need to preserve space.

This is the image that I have chosen.

Black and white

As I said I also wanted to create a poster for the event, these are the images that I have chosen.

I think that they are nice images on their own , but taken together work well.

I think that the poster sums up the day. It contains all the events that made up the Rusper fun day. The only thing missing is an image of people eating and drinking.

I really enjoyed this exercise. I was at the event all day. I was even asked by some of the runners to send them copies of the images which I did. Getting emails back saying how much they loved the pictures made the day even better.